HARARE – Two officials of a private school in Harare have walked free following trial for allegedly duping at least 60 pupils of a collective US$7,500 paid as enrolment fees.
Thomas Mutsvene and Tariro Patsikadova were being accused of failing to register a private school in Glaudina suburb.
Prosecutors alleged that the school was ordered to shut down by authorities in 2023 after collecting the fees.
In his ruling, Harare magistrate Ishmael Shayanewako said in respect of the failure to register a private school, the court was not shown that the two are the owners of the school. Rather, they were running it on behalf of the Glaudina community.
He also said noone came to testify on why the accused persons were expected to register it.
He said the case is one which can best be resolved in the civil court between the affected parents, the former administration of Glaudina Primary School and the current administration of Glaudina Council Primary School.
The state was alleging that the two lied to 60 parents in Dzivarasekwa that they were running a school.
“They collected US$7,500 from the parents, supposedly as fees, but failed to enrol the children into the school,” prosecutors told the court during trial.
Mutsvene was accused of posing as the head teacher while Patsikadova was the school development committee chairperson.
They promised that the school was going to open on January 9, 2023 well aware their school was not registered and the local authority was already making efforts to shut it down.
“The two accused persons took money amounting to US$7,500 from the complainants knowing that their school was not registered and that it was to be taken over by the Harare City Council.
“Thereafter, the two failed to enrol the children thereby prejudicing the complainants of the above-mentioned amount of money.
“The 60 complainants are now entitled to pay an amount of US$70 per child to Harare City Council for registration and fees at the same school for the same enrolment period,” read court papers.
